Asuna's p.o.v.
"Your son has contracted a serious strain of the flu virus, but the good news is that at the moment he is showing positive signs.", the doctor said.
"And the bad news?", I asked, my voice cracking.
"The bad news is that until his condition improves, we have to keep him isolated. You won't be able to see him. He'll have to stay in the ICU facilities until he is up for visits. I'll keep you posted, but at the moment, he needs rest. I would also like to check you and the rest of your family to make sure that none of the rest of you have contracted the virus. I just need to do some quick tests and they won't take more than five minutes.", he said.
"I understand.", I said morosely.
I wasn't even able to comfort my sick, tired baby? How was he supposed to get better if he was missing me the whole time? If all I was able to do was look at him through a glass wall, how was I supposed to know he was really getting better? It's like looking into an aquarium. Like a whole new world that you're almost completely oblivious to.
I walked back to where Kazuto and Finley slept. Kazuto stirred and woke up when I laid my hand on his shoulder. He sat up and looked at me, then at the doctor.
"What happened?", he asked immediately, suddenly wide awake.
"Miles has a bad strain of the flu and until he gets better, we can't see him. I mean, we can see, him, but we can't be with him. He's confined to the ICU facilities until further notice. They also want to run some tests to make sure that we don't have the virus too.", I repeated.
"Is he gonna be alright?", Kazuto asked.
"They said there's no reason he shouldn't be, but he still isn't up for visitation yet, so we have to leave it to the professionals.", I said.
Kazuto nodded grimly as he stood up slowly with Finley still in his arms. She stirred, but as far as we could tell, didn't wake up. I sighed and pulled my coat tighter around me as I turned to follow the doctor to be tested.
We walked down a hallway and into a small room with a cot and a few chairs. A counter with a sink and some cabinets sat in one corner of the room and a computer on a small desk sat on the wall next to the counter.
Kazuto sat down on a chair with Finley and I stood next to him. The doctor walked in behind us and began pulling things out of drawers and cabinets by the sink. He had three small syringes and a few cotton balls. Next, he pulled out a bottle of sanitizing alcohol and laid it all out on the counter.
"I'm going to have to draw some blood from each of you. It's the quickest and most efficient way to make sure none of you have the virus. I'll do you two first and save the little one for last.", he said.
I nodded and rolled up the sleeve of my coat to let the doctor take my blood. He unwrapped one of the syringes and uncapped it. I stuck out my arm and he inserted the needle right behind my elbow. I winced at the pain but didn't move. He quickly withdrew some blood, then capped the syringe and placed it in a plastic bag. When he had done that, he dabbed my arm with the disinfectant alcohol and gave me a band-aid.
He repeated the process on Kazuto, then finally on Finley. He did it while she was still asleep so that she wouldn't be as frightened of it. Surprisingly, she didn't wake up, only squirmed a bit after he withdrew the needle. When he finished, he put all three syringes in separate plastic bags, then left the room with them.
"Asuna, he'll be alright. I know it's hard being separated from him, but he's going to be ok.", Kazuto said in a hushed voice.
"How can you be so sure? He's just a baby. He's not even a year old yet. How do you know that he'll make it through this when he doesn't even have his mother and father to comfort him?", I asked.
"Because of where he came from. That kid is definitely your son. He's quiet and reserved, but more stubborn and determined than I've ever seen anybody else be, but you. Remember when we were SAO and you were so bent on beating the game that you neutralized paralysis to save me? Nobody had ever done that before, but your determination to save me and your stubborn nature made anything possible in that moment. You were really stubborn against your mother when she said you couldn't marry me. If there is one thing I know about Miles, it's that he inherited every ounce of strength, determination, and stubbornness that you have in you.", he replied.
I sighed. I was pretty stubborn, and I could usually do anything I put my mind to. Kazuto was right. I had to have faith in the son I was raising. He would pull through somehow.
~~~~~~~ Two weeks later~~~~~~~
I stood in the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital waiting to see my son. I wasn't alone. Liz and Klein, Silica, Sinon, Agil, Cathy,Sugu and Kazuto's parents, and my parents, along with Kouichirou were here with Kazuto and I. There were tears in my eyes as they wheeled a small hospital bed out of a glass room that held Miles. He was sitting up, chewing a teething ring and looking around his new surroundings. He looked at me and immediately held his arms out towards me.
"Can I hold him?", I asked the nurse, the tears finally rolling down my cheeks and onto my neck.
She nodded and I almost lunged for Miles. I picked him up and held him close to my body. He laid his head on my shoulder and was silent. I could feel his heart beating quickly in his little chest and his breathing, which was much quicker than mine, as he had much smaller lungs.
For the first time in two weeks, I hugged my baby. He was no longer sick and was ready to be discharged from the hospital completely. Kazuto hugged the both of us and whispered in my ear.
"I told you he would make it.", he said.
I smiled and nodded as I cried tears of joy onto Kazuto's shoulder. I had spent so many sleepless nights thinking about Miles and whether he would be alright, praying that he would make it through this and come home to us. My family was whole again and I could rest easy for what felt like the first time in centuries.
It wasn't long before we felt other arms around us and we had a full on group-hug with all of our friends and family. I laughed and kissed Miles on the head. He was sucking his thumb and looking past my chest at whatever he could see of his entire family.
It occurred to me that my brother had never met his niece and nephew. He'd been away at college for a while and apparently hadn't gotten much news of anything back home. He hadn't even known that I had kids until a month ago when I emailed him about their birthdays. I felt bad about leaving him out like that, I had just assumed Mom or Dad had told him and kept him up to date on all the current events.
When the group hug broke, I walked over to Kouichirou, Miles still in my arms, and gave him a hug. He was surprised, but he hugged me back after a moment. He smiled at me with straight, pearly white teeth with that charming face of his. I knew my brother was a looker. He'd always had a string of girls after him, which he was totally oblivious to, of course.
"Hey, Sis. Long time no see.", Kouichirou laughed.
"It's good to see you.", I said.
"So this is my nephew?", he asked.
"Yup. This is Miles. His sister is being passed around elsewhere at the moment.", I laughed.
"Can I hold him?", my brother asked.
"Yeah, if he'll let you. He's kind of picky.", I said, handing Miles to Kouichirou.
To my surprise, Miles just started touching Kouichirou's face gently with his fingers. He tried to pull his ears and hair, but I pulled his hands away. Kazuto walked over to us and clapped Kouichirou on the shoulder.
"Hey, man.", Kazuto said.
"Hey. Good to see you've been taking care of my sister.", Kouichirou laughed.
"I think it's actually the other way around.", Kazuto said.
"No way. It's pretty well balanced. You go to work to pay the bills and put food on the table, I just cook, clean, and take care of the kids, which you help with, anyway.", I said.
"Still, I couldn't get by without you, even if it was just us.", Kazuto said, placing an arm around my waist.
I smiled and laid my head on his shoulder. We stood there a moment until everybody else came over to talk to us. We walked over to Liz and Klein. Liz was holding Finley and playing with her. I smiled as I watched Klein act slightly awkward around the baby like he didn't know how to handle her, even though he wasn't the one holding her. When she would laugh or coo, he would get nervous.
"Hey, Liz. How's the wedding planning going?", I asked.
"Oh, it's going great. We booked an old cathedral for the ceremony and we've already got the honeymoon planned out. We're going to go to England.", Liz said.
"That sounds awesome!", I said smiling.
"Yeah, we're going to get married a bit sooner than we had planned, though. We like the idea of a winter wedding, so this December is when we're going to tie the knot.", Klein chimed in.
"Oh, that's so cute. I love winter weddings. Especially when it snows. There's just so much white and it makes all the colors stand out that much more.", I said dreamily.
"We could have gotten married in the winter, you know.", Kazuto said.
"Yeah, but I prefer Spring because it's warm and it's like new life, so it's perfect for a wedding because I got to leave my old life behind and start a new one with you.", I said, grabbing my husband's hand and giving it a reassuring squeeze.
Kazuto smiled and kissed my cheek. Klein and Liz were smiling, too as they watched us. Liz suddenly yelped and I turned to look at her. Finley had gotten a fistful of her red hair and was trying to pull it into her mouth. I sighed and grabbed Finley's hand, gently getting her to release Liz's hair. When I finally got her to let go, she started fussing a little, but she didn't shed a tear.
"Kazuto, your daughter is needing to be reminded that we don't pull hair.", I said.
"Why is she only my daughter when she's in trouble.", Kazuto asked.
I laughed.
"She's not. She's completely your daughter, whether she's being scolded or rewarded. She is just like you in every single way. She is very strong willed and has no problem with voicing an opinion. She's smart, curious, and sweet. She is just like you!", I said, still laughing.
"Well, when you put it that way...", Kazuto said.
I laughed and kissed his cheek. Finley started holding her hands out to Kazuto, trying to get him to hold her. Kazuto gladly obliged her and scolded her lightly by thumping her lip and telling her not to pull hair. She began wailing as tears ran down her chubby baby cheeks. I was almost heartbroken, but I knew she was laying it on thick.
Liz made a pouting face. She was torn between not wanting Finley to cry and not wanting to get in the way of her lesson.
"It's ok that she pulled my hair. It didn't hurt that bad.", Liz said.
"Even if that was the case, she still needs to learn that she can't do that. We have to punish our kids so they have respect for others when they're older.", I said.
"I know. It just seems so awful when she's crying like this.", Liz said.
"Yeah, but you get over it once you actually become a parent.", Kazuto said over Finley's wailing, which became lesser by the minute.
Liz sighed and laughed.
"How do you guys make it work? You are the dream couple with the dream family. I don't think you two have ever even had a serious fight.", Liz said.
"Actually, we've had plenty of fights, but we don't let them get the better of us. We let them strengthen us and prepare us for next time. We don't fight that often, but when we do, we focus on solving the problem, rather than letting it come between us.", I said, putting a hand on Finley's back to quiet her a little.
I heard a cry from the other side of the room. Miles had been passed to Silica, but he was trying to put his hand in her mouth. She was trying to pull her face away from him and he was crying when she wouldn't let him put his hand in her mouth. I laughed and walked over, pulling Miles' hands down.
"No, Baby. Keep your hands to yourself.", I chided softly.
"I'm sure he just wants at my braces.", Silica laughed.
I looked at her.
"When did you get braces?", I asked.
"Yesterday. They hurt like the dickens, too.", she laughed.
"Yeah, I had braces when I was in middle school. I hated them, especially when they gave me rubber bands.", I said.
"Really? I didn't know that.", I heard Kazuto say from behind me.
"Ugh. Yeah, I had braces.", I said.
"I want to see a picture of this.", he laughed.
"NO! No, you don't! I looked awful and I burned them all, anyways.", I said quickly.
"I see."
"Yeah."
"I'll just ask your mom, then."
I was filled with horror. My mom probably still had those photos in her cellphone or something. I was doomed. I made a dash over to my mom and quickly stole her phone from her bag, opening it up and going straight to her photo gallery. She only had three photos, but I quickly deleted them.
"Asuna, what are you doing?", she asked.
"I'm deleting my incriminating past.", I said, deleting the last photo.
"Are you speaking of your middle school photos?", she asked
"Yeah. Why do you still have those?", I asked
"Because you were cute! Your braces were red and white, just how you liked them. And you would always smile the biggest when you were really happy.", Mom said.
"I would've liked to have seen that.", Kazuto said.
"That's ok. I've got them on my phone, too. Plus some.", Dad chimed in, taking his phone out of his pocket.
"NO!!! Why is my family all determined to embarrass me?", I asked.
Everybody was laughing at the scene as it unfolded. A few were discussing it amongst themselves to figure out what was happening. I was watching, mortified, as my own father showed my husband the worst photos that had ever been taken of me.
"Father. Why have you forsaken me?", I asked dramatically.
I was nothing if not overdramatic.
"But you look so cute in these!", Kazuto said, taking the phone from my dad and swiping through the photos.
I rolled my eyes and blew my bangs out of my face. Everybody around us was still laughing. I felt like dying slowly in a corner as the photos were passed around and the embarrassment spread to my whole family and my group of friends.
~~~
I laid Miles down in his crib after a long day of celebrating his being discharged from the hospital. We'd gone out to eat and taken the kids to a park, where they repeatedly went down the slide and eventually fell asleep in the stroller.
When we got home, Kazuto and I were dog tired. All I wanted was to curl up in bed and sleep for as long as my body would let me. I quickly put the twins to bed, then walked out of the room, closing the door behind me.
"It's good to have the whole family home. I feel like I can finally relax and stop expecting calls from the hospital every five minutes the few times we came home to get a shower and a change of clothes.", Kazuto said, wrapping his arms around me as I crawled into the bed.
I almost replied, but sleep was too heavy on my eyelids and I was already drifting off. I hadn't even changed my clothes before I was in a dreamless sleep.
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I really hope you guys liked this chapter! Shout out to all my lovely readers, who support me so much and who give me endless encouragement to keep writing and do my best. I owe you guys my life! Writing and getting to see all y'alls' goofy comments gets me so hyped up that I can't wait to publish the next chapter. Special shout out to RockmanZX , who will be recieving a bonus chapter shortly after this one is published. It's her choice whether to share it with you, or not. None of it has anything to do with the storyline, but I think it's really cute.
Anyways, y'all have a great night, and my boyfriend says "HI!" and he also called y'all my potato mafia, but that's an inside joke that involves my phone's autocorrect, so anyways... I love you all and I can't wait to see how y'all react to the next chapter, because it's gonna be so good!!!
-Scarlet